Boyeurism: Bastille's Dan Smith

Naomi is the Miss Vogue editor and social media manager of British Vogue

Thursday 19 January 2017

Since they first burst onto the music scene in 2010, Bastille has become one of Britain's most instantly recognisable (blame it on their sprightly mix of R&B, EDM, rock and pop) chart-dominating bands. Their hits, like Pompeii and Of The Night, have become global festival anthems, blaring out from stages across the world from Cincinnati to Zurich.

Now, as they release their new single, Blame, and are on their way to selling 10 million records worldwide, we meet the heartthrob of the foursome, Dan Smith.

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What was your favorite thing about making this album?

I loved the process of pulling the whole album together at the beginning of this year. We’d been writing and recording songs whilst touring around the world over the last few years, which in itself was a lot of fun, but I loved spending some time back in London in our friend’s studio going through everything we’d made and self-curating the record. The studio is in South London pretty near to where we all live, so we’d just wander in every day and work away on the record. We wanted the album to be like a mixtape or a film soundtrack, so it allowed us to try loads of different things, and then source loads of quotes from films and documentaries to thread it all together.

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Where in the world is your favorite place to perform?

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We’ve just done a tour of small clubs in the US and UK, playing the new album from start to finish. It reminded us how awesome it is to play tiny, sweaty venues where you can see everyone’s faces and get stuck right into the crowd. I loved going back to the Troubadour in LA, which was the first place we ever played in the US, and had such a great time. We were lucky enough to play Red Rocks as well. That was a crazily beautiful place to do a gig.

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If you could curate your own festival, who would you put on the line-up?

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That’s such a tough question. I’d reform The Fugees, resurrect half of The Beatles and then reform them too. We’d try resurrecting Bowie, Prince and Hendrix. I’d also book Bon Iver, James Blake, Kanye, Frank Ocean, Sigur Ros, Christine and the Queens, Rationale. Yeasayer, Vampire Weekend… I could just go on listing artists for ages. It would also be good to have some comedy there as well.

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Whose style do you admire?

I love David Lynch’s style. Someone once thought I was his son, so I must have been doing an alright job at emulating it.

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I generally wear a lot of black clothes, and I think that comes from wanting to be as neutral as possible. We use a lot of visuals on stage, so I kind of hope people are watching those and not looking at me. I love wearing Converse or Vans, and wear a lot of bombers or denim jackets. I’m also a bit of loser, so wear a lot of film and band T-shirts. My friends say that I look like a cartoon character because I’m always wearing the same kind of stuff.

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What would be your dream date?

Something relaxed with good food, but not too messy. I once went on a date where the girl drove and so couldn’t drink. I was nervous so drank quite a bit – it didn’t end amazingly. As much as I love movies, I think cinema dates can be weird because you essentially sit next to each other in silence for a couple of hours.

Do you still get starstruck?

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We got to meet Leonardo DiCaprio when we played on Saturday Night Live so that was pretty unreal. Except even backstage at SNL he had his own security to keep all the less famous people from hassling him. I seem to get starstruck pretty much every time I meet anyone I’ve heard of. It’s probably best that I don’t meet my idols, ever.

What’s the maddest thing that has happened when you’ve been on tour?

We feel very lucky that we are able to have so many crazy experiences all over the world, so it’s tough to narrow it down. We love to get outside and do adventurous things. We get to check out the set of Game of Thrones soon, which will be wicked. We were also invited on a private tour of NASA in Houston, which was incredible, and it led to Kyle going to watch an actual rocket launch in Florida.

Who is your favorite Vogue cover girl?

All of the Twiggy covers from the Sixties are great.

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What was the biggest influence for your new album?

There was a big mix of influences. Hip-hop production, guitar music and electronic music had a big influence. A whole host of films, books and film soundtracks did as well. The idea of threading film and documentary samples throughout the album came from a love of hip hop records as well as Tarantino soundtracks. We wanted to make a big sprawling album that looks at how to digest the world today, and the ways we see it through the news and film and TV. It’s hard to pin down what the biggest influence on the record was because it feels like a big scramble of a lot of stuff.

Who would you love to see making a guest appearance on a Bastille track?

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Regina Spektor would be awesome. I think she’s an incredible songwriter, and her voice is amazing.

What do you still want to achieve with Bastille?

We would love to simply keep producing music and if we can continue to play live as long as possible, that would be great. We are always thankful to be where we are now, but always looking to further expand and, of course, continue to write more records.